Why not him?

Minnesota Democratic senatorial candidate Al Franken titled his mock memoir of a presidential campaign Why Not Me?. Over the past few weeks, with his failure to pay workers’ compensation insurance in New York and his failure to pay corporate tax returns in California, he has begun to answer the question he asked in the title of that book. Today’s Star Tribune reports that a new round of financial questions dogs Franken. Franken’s campaign said Thursday that his accountant is trying to sort out whether he owes taxes in California.

Since the expiration of the Al Franken decade in 1990, the only kind of humor for which Franken has been responsible is unintentional. Running true to Franken’s form, Franken campaign spokesman Andy Barr put out an unintentionally humorous statement yesterday:

“Al feels that because his name is at the top of the organization, he takes ultimate responsibility for everything that goes on,” Barr said. “But if there’s a mistake that’s been made, he’s pretty insistent that the accountant fix it. He’s been pretty vocal with [the accountant] on this point.”

No humor intended, Barr added: “Al spent the week doing an economy tour of the state.”